My First MAC Experience

So they just opened up a MAC in my town a year or two ago so it was a relatively new phenomenon I had never explored. I have never had much time or money for makeup until my husband got a good job and now that I am a stay at home mom I have LOTS of time to shop (unfortunately for hubby!).

What was part of your first MAC shopping bag?

I thought I would start off with a eyeshadow quad, a lipstick, and a blending brush.

Let me just say that I know I have heard rave reviews about MAC but I wasn't all too impressed. Maybe it was just my experience but I was ignored almost the whole visit. Then I saw they didn't have much of a selection. Mayhaps this is just my store but ya... I prefer Sephora where the ladies are always friendly and helpful. PLUS there is always such a huge selection. I think they ignored me because I had my stroller with me and figured mama didn't have money to purchase anything. I wanted to pull a Pretty Woman on them. BIG MISTAKE, HUGE! lol

Re: My First MAC Experience

I'm sorry that you had a bad experiance with the staff at your MAC store. I just went to my MAC counter today and they were super helpful and nice! In my first MAC shopping experiance, I got 3 eye shadows (espresso, brulee, and woodwinked) a gel eyeliner (blacktrack fluidline), and a eye brush (217). I would suggest try going there again because MAC has some great products and you will be missing out otherwise! Also, I recommend some of their lipsticks (I like the cremesheen finishes) and their lipglosses are really nice too!

Re: My First MAC Experience

I'm sorry your first M.A.C excursion was disappointing. I have always been greeted/assisted in all the stand alone stores I've visited, and sometimes my counter experiences have been hit or miss. In fact, I became a M.A.C fan b/c of the service I received my very first visit as a broke teen..lol. My first purchase was the "O" lipstick.

Your experience is similar to my Sephora trips. I prefer the JCP store to our sole stand alone store b/c the stand alone reps will ignore you with and w/out customers. It was not until I went to the Pentagon City Sephora that I was greeted and helped. I rewarded them for it!

Re: My First MAC Experience

The Pretty Woman reference made me howl with laughter. Today I went into the MAC in Burlington, MA and said almost the same thing to my husband afterwards. I typically wrap my hair in a bandanna on weekend days, wear no makeup and a hoodie, because I am so dressed up during the week. However, I went in there with money to spend and I just got ignored like you wouldn't believe. There are a few MAC products that I have been using for years, like a few shades of their paints and fluidline products. Those I will keep using but will buy from the website going forward.

My first MAC shopping trip was actually for wedding makeup 8 years ago! We were eloping and I wanted a green and pink look that would go with my jeans/tank top/flip flop wedding look. (We got married in Las Vegas!) The girls at the counter in the Saugus, MA MAC counter at Macy's were awesome and very helpful. I'm sorry your experience wasn't good

Re: My First MAC Experience

Maybe I will go to a counter next time instead. I was not impressed... they were busy kissing the butt of the young girls with there momma's buying them crap. I get this quite a lot because of how young I look or because I take my child with me. I swear I will pay extra just to be treated nicer. I was trying to meet all their eyes to signal I needed help and they didn't even say hi! Like, HELLO DON"T BE A DOUCHE lol.

Re: My First MAC Experience

That's interesting. I don't think I've ever had a bad experience with MAC's staff at either their stand alone stores or at their department store counters. Even when they're extemely busy in the department stores doing a makeup session with a customer, they have always gone out of their way to assure me that someone would assist me shortly. Ironically, there is a Sephora a couple of doors down from MAC in Chevy Chase, Maryland, where I typically go. I usually race past the MAC store to get to Sephora. I may go into MAC as an afterthought.

I remember MAC was highly praised back in the day for the huge selection of lipsticks and glosses especially for African American women. So I went in one day to see what the big deal was. When they found out I was a first-time customer, they treated me like royalty! My first MAC bag contained their Chai Lipglass, a lip pencil in Chestnut, and the Face and Body Foundation. I love their brushes, as well as the lipsticks, Lipglass and eyeshadows, which are richly pigmented. Compared to other brands, they are relatively inexpensive. The concealers are pretty good, too. I stopped using their foundations though, including the Studio Fix powder foundation, because they typically broke me out and oxidized on me so badly that I looked like an Oompa Loompa!

Re: My First MAC Experience

It's perfectly normal to be ignored in a MAC store, I'm sorry to say. I always go in dressed in business attire because I am on a break from work and still get ignored or treated like they are doing me a huge favor. Don't think it's you, they treat everyone this way, I think in all the visits I've made to their stores, only once did someone treat me nicely and I spent over $300, probably because I was in shock. lol I think the first item I ever bought from them was a Pro Pan palette and 4 Pro shadows.

But they do have excellent brushes and some of their shadow colors are unique to them. If I'm enthralled with that shade, I just shop unassisted until I can practically rope and tie an associate to get them to help me, then ask for all the things I want at once. I also try to shop mid day, mid week when they don't have anyone else to wait on.

Re: My First MAC Experience

I guess this business model works for them... but I don't think I will be returning unless I take back what I bought. If I'm going to spend some good money somewhere I expect to at least be greeted...sheesh.